Vestiges of the Night
by spinshivers
Summary: Zak has never woken up before sunrise in the Triangle, except today.


Written for Fluffcember 2019, a set of wholesome prompts released by a few writers on Tumblr. Cross posted on my Tumblr and AO3 under spinningground. Prompt: sunrise.

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Zak awoke to the gentle rocking of the ship, chasing the echoes of yesterday's dreams. They had been memories of summers at his family's beach house, surfing Florida's waves with Dad and late-night calls with friends. He burrowed his head into the pillow and willed himself back to sleep.

It didn't work. The chill in the cabin made his toes curl.

Squinting at the glass-stained windows, he realized the outside world was dark. Calabrass lay across the table beneath them, his skull's eye sockets devoid of their usual luminescence. Had it only been a few hours since he'd gone to bed?

As much as his stomach wished it weren't, it was probably too early for breakfast. But he wasn't tired, and he was getting restless.

No point fidgeting in the cold. Zak rolled out of his bunk, slipped on his shoes and padded towards the exit, avoiding the wooden floorboards that creaked. Glancing at Calabrass – the old sword really slept as if he were inanimate – he stepped out into the open deck and gently shut the door.

The sky was lighter than he expected, a star-dusted midnight blue gentling into a purple hue towards the ship's aft. He could catch the sunrise, he realized. The last time he'd seen one was when Dad had dragged his butt out of the house on the first day of summer. Winding around the ship's sails that were lowered like butterfly wings, he took to the stairs for the upper deck, then he jerked to a halt.

Facing away from him, a figure stood at the far end of the deck, watching the dawn break with crossed arms.

Zak crept up the next step.

"Don't try, Captain. Your footsteps were very loud."

"I wasn't gonna try anything!"

He couldn't hide a smile when Cece turned around, her lips quirked and pink eyes glinting. She gave a light 'hm' in response, which told Zak nothing, but she shifted her gaze back towards the horizon. "What brings you up early today?"

Joining her, he jabbed a thumb back towards his cabin. "The cold. Man, if I'd known what the temperature's gonna be like, I'd would've bought that quilt yesterday and slept through morning." Then he looked properly at the wisps of orange brightening above the ocean, and he leaned his elbows against the railings. "Wow, that's pretty."

"Yes," Cece said. "If we escape from the Triangle, I will miss watching it."

"You mean _when_ we escape."

"Of course."

"And Atlantis doesn't have sunrises?"

"My nation is on the ocean floor, Zak."

"Oh, yeah. Heh, so you guys just swim around blind- Ow! I'm kidding!"

They fell into silence, looking on as the sun peeked over the vast expanse of sea, casting its waves in yellow and orange. The chill had receded now that Zak was up and about (and had been attacked by his First Mate).

"Hey," he said.

"Yes?"

"When do you think a kraken's gonna explode from underwater and try to eat us all?"

Cece snorted. "Excited for action already?"

"C'mon, it's practically a daily routine. We could treat it as exercise!" He pushed away from the railings, stretching and cracking out the kinks in his neck. "Let's wake everyone else up and-"

His stomach grumbled.

"-and have breakfast?" the First Mate suggested, her smile broadening.

He laughed and rubbed his neck with a hand.

"Chaos," he called. Beneath their feet, the ship responded to her captain, her gentle rocking steadying into a deep rumble. "Head for Marituga! You know where to go, don't you?"

In reply, her two giant sails rose high over their heads in sweeping arcs, fitting together and flapping in the wind.

As the Chaos sped across the Sea of Beru, Cece headed below deck to call up the rest of the crew. Zak lingered at the aft, watching the vestiges of the night recede, before heading down to join his friends.

It wasn't summer, the beach house or the friends he'd known, but he couldn't have asked for a better first sunrise in the Triangle.

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Thank you for reading. I would love to know your thoughts. :)

Uploaded 02/12/2019. Fixed minor mistakes on 03/12/2019.


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